For forming and packaging purposes, dairy products such as cream cheese and processed cheese are conventionally hot-filled in a tub or mould and subsequently cooled to the storage temperature (usually in the range of from about 2 to 10° C.). The tub could be a sales packaging and, in such case, the tub will be sealed with an aluminium foil lid, thus producing the final packaged product for the consumer.
In a different field, namely in the manufacture of ice cream, it is conventional to aerate (or whip or introduce air into) the ice cream raw mixture when it is extruded in the frozen state into its final form. Ice cream is, however, a food product having substantially different characteristics from dairy products such as cream cheese and processed cheese. At refrigerated temperatures (about 2 to 10° C.), it melts so that the aerated texture collapses. In other words, in order to maintain dimensional stability, ice cream has to be kept in the frozen state.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,795,650 describes a method of making an extruded frozen cheesecake product by forming a stabilized dispersion of, inter alia, cream cheese which is then cooked, homogenized, aerated and frozen. The frozen mixture is extruded to form a free-standing structure and further frozen to a stable state. The frozen cheesecake product obtained by this process is edible only within a product temperature range of from about −10 to 30° F. (−23 to −1° C.)
U.S. Pat. No. 3,966,970 relates to a method of packaging bite-size pieces of a cheese product which includes heating the ingredients to a molten state with mixing, and then cooling and extruding the product at a refrigerated temperature. Thereafter, the extruded bar is subjected to shock cooling, attaining a temperature of 10 to 30° F. (−12 to −1° C.). The bar is finally cut into bite-size pieces and individually packaged for the consumer.
WO 2007/042096 describes a chilled dessert product comprising a moulded gel part and a fat-based anhydrous coating. The product has a temperature of 1-10° C. In the method for preparing the chilled dessert product, it is preferably avoided that the gel part, after the gel structure has been formed, is frozen.
EP 0 818 149 concerns a food composition in the form of a mousse-like plastic mass. The composition is an oil-in-water emulsion comprising fats, milk proteins and water. It is obtained by producing the emulsion, pasteurizing it at a temperature of between 80 and 110° C., pre-cooling it to a temperature of from 30 to 60° C. and aerating the mixture by injection of an inert gas. The food composition thus obtained, after further cooling to about 2-8° C., is ready for use for filling bakery products or as a filling for wafers.